"Truly" Julie Evelsizer's
Tribute to Neil
This is “Truly” Julie Evelsizer. I don’t
remember how
many years and how many hundreds of Kinks Digests
it’s
been
since I first met Olga in cyberspace and she directed
me to the KPS. I only know that I’d be lost without it.
There is no other source of “News and Rumors” like it.
And
there is no other place where Kinks fanatics all over
the
world can feel safe and
secure revealing, and even
reveling
in, this passion that (let’s face it) most people just
don’t
understand.
You
don’t have to be a giddy teenager to be a Kinks fan. But the impending release of a new album by
Ray or Dave, or the rumor of a Kinks reunion will send all of us straight into
that mind-set. We all know who we
are. I don’t know about you, but since I
don’t live near a large city where I could see the Kinks regularly even when
they were playing together, I was lonely for fellow fans. If I ever got any
news, for instance of a new album of Dave’s, it was strictly by accident. Then came the Internet.
We
often put in a word for Neil Ottenstein, but the 3000th Kinks Digest
is an appropriate time to stop and honor him.
Three thousand mass e-mails is a lot, even for a rocket scientist of
Neil’s caliber. Neil is also to be
commended for his gentle touch at moderating the discussion. We’re a pretty tolerant bunch and don’t often
get into attack mode, but Neil’s subtle handling of the digest by putting posts
one might or might not want to read at the end (rather than arbitrarily booting
them out), and knowing when to tell people a certain subject is over, is
admirable. I don’t know whether he could
handle the UN, but Neil’s a fine diplomat for this crowd.
I
can imagine that Neil spends a good bit of time with the computer for a person
who also works for a living, without recompense, just to bring us all
together. I love being a part of this
community, and it wouldn’t, and couldn’t have happened, without Neil. Here’s to you, Neil!
Julie